Great news on the blood work!! EVERYTHING was within NORMAL limits!!

  This included blood pressure, blood sugar, blood count, liver enzymes,
cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.

  Of most significance, besides my having lost 60 pounds since last
August, the Hemoglobin A1C had DROPPED to 5.4, after holding steady at
6.1 the last 2 years!! I'm no longer pre-type 2 diabetic...have never
been diabetic, and hope to never become such. My BMI (body mass index)
is still 36 (classed as obese), but that's the best blood work I've had
in years!!

  I'm going in for a cystolithopaxy with holirium on Feb. 6, as
outpatient surgery...to remove a 9 millimeter (possibly larger) stone in
my urinary bladder. They'll (obviously) strip me naked...then get the IV
in...especially with anti-nausea medicine, as I've never done well with
anesthesia (violent vomiting, and blood pressure plunges under
sedation). Then, they'll put me to sleep (Thank God!), and insert a
cystoscope up the penis and the urethra into the urinary bladder. Next,
a laser or other device will smash the stone into fragments, then they
will irrigate the bladder to flush out the debris. I'll be able to go
home once I can urinate without the catheter.

  I've been awake for those cystoscopies, and need a large amount of
numbing gel in the penis at least 10 minutes beforehand (holding it
shut). That doesn't remove all the discomfort, but it eliminates much of
it. I freely admit it that "men are wimps when it coms to pain".

Daryl

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